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The rapid rat-tat-tat-tat-tat, sounding almost as rapid as machine gun fire and with an echo behind it, woke them both, and they both glared at the ceiling.
"That yellow-bellied sapsucker!" he growled, and she laughed.
"We know it's a woodpecker, but as for what species it is, well, neither of us are birders."
"I don't care what species, I'm calling it that because it's an insult," he grumbled, and added, "how does it make that noise, anyway?"
"It taps on the stove pipe from the wood burning stove to make the bugs run out from under the flashing so it can catch and eat them."
"Well if it doesn't stop waking me up early on Saturday mornings, I'm going to have me a Woody Woodpecker Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker trophy on my wall!"
Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Yellowbelly.
(Yes, the woodpecker, whatever kind it is, does this, and yes, Sweetie grumbles and calls it Woody Woodpecker the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. No, he'd never make it into a trophy, he is too tender hearted toward wild animals, he just likes to grumble.)
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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!
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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day! This week's image and my poem:
Watch out, Spitz and Phelps,
I'm determined, come what may,
though I've just started learning,
I'll be a swimming star one day!
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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop. It's time to share something for which i am thankful.
Today i am thankful for yesterday's final church ladies meeting for this season, we had lunch at the home of a member who has been homebound and wanted to see all of us, so her daughter came and served us a delightful meal.
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Today is:
Arrival of the Swiss at the Port-Noir -- Switzerland
Dia da Crianca -- Cape Verde (Youth Day)
Dia de la Marina -- Mexico (Day of the Navy)
Early Bird Day -- an internet derived day that reminds us the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese
Famadihana -- Madagascar (from now until November, various areas celebrate the Malagasay culture's "turning the bones," a fascinating reburial of the dead ceremony)
Fardagar -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (time when farm workers moved from one farm to another, the time to settle debts, and until the 20th-Century, the day to start the fiscal year; always the Thursday through Sunday of the 7th week of summer)
Feast of St. Justin Martyr (a/k/a Justin the Philosopher; Patron of apologists, lecturers, orators, philosophers, speakers)
Festival of Non-Linearity -- another one you find on the internet, no meaning or rhyme to it, but if you like to think in non-linear ways, enjoy today!
Festival of the Oak Nymph -- Celtic/Pagan (around this time of year, the Celts took a day to honor all hamadryads, the female nature spirits who inhabit oak trees)
Flip a Coin Day -- as noted by The Ultimate Holiday Site, which claims Julius Caesar invented it (doubtful, but the Romans did toss coins)
Gawai Dayak -- Sarawak, Malaysia (harvest festival begins today)
Global Day of Parents -- UN
Go Barefoot Day -- originally sponsored by Soles4Souls, which recycles shoes to those who have none; while i cannot find if they are sponsoring a day or week this year, it's a good reminder not to let your old shoes end up in a landfill
Hari Lahir Pancasila -- Indonesia (Pancasila Day)
Heimlich Maneuver Day -- Dr. Heimlich first published his suggestion for aiding choking victims with "subdiaphragmatic pressure" on this day in 1974
Helen Keller Day -- sponsored by the Lions Clubs
Hen-Peeler's Holiday -- Fairy Calendar
Independence Day/National Day -- Samoa
International Children's Day
Kalends of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances:
Day Sacred to Tempestas (goddess of storms)
Festival for Juno Moneta (Juno as goddess of money)
Festival of Carna (goddess of health and vitality, and also of doors and locks, which were to be repaired today)
Madaraka Day -- Kenya (National Day or self-rule/responsibility day)
Mint Julip Day -- Oxford University, England (the drink was introduced there this day in 1845, and they liked it so well, they dedicated a day to it!)
Mothers' and Children's Day -- Mongolia
National Hazelnut Cake Day
National Tree Planting Day -- Cambodia
Oscar the Grouch Day -- according to the Sesame Workshop, today is his birthday
Pancasila Sanctity Day -- Indonesia
President's Day -- Palau
Say Something Nice Day -- as declared by the mayor of a town in South Carolina who is tired of all the negative talk all the time
Stand for Children Day -- stand.org founded by a rally this day in 1996, seeking to ensure all children graduate from high school
St. Theobald Roggeri's Day (Patron of church cleaners, cobblers, porters, shoemakers; against fever and sterility)
Summer Library Book club Season begins -- anywhere that school is out, check your local library for a summer book club for children or adults; you never know what world you will discover when you read
Superman Day -- publication of the first Superman comic was this day in 1938
Victory Day -- Tunisia (anniversary of the Adoption of the Constitution of Tunisia in 1959)
Yobuko Otsunahiki -- Higashi Matsuura, Saga prefecture, Japan (two day Big Tug-of-War Festival, with one team representing the land and the other the sea; victory for the land means good crops, for the sea means good catches)
Anniversaries Today:
Charlie Chaplin marries Paulette Goddard, 1934
Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is founded as the first US land-grant university, 1808
Tennessee becomes the 16th US state, 1796
Kentucky becomes the 15th US state, 1792
Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen Consort of England, 1533
Birthdays Today:
Justine Henin, 1982
Alanis Morissette, 1974
Heidi Klum, 1973
Mark Curry, 1964
Lisa Hartman Black, 1956
Ron Wood, 1947
Jonathan Pryce, 1947
Frederica von Stade, 1945
Robert Powell, 1944
Rene Auberjonois, 1940
Cleavon Little, 1939
Morgan Freeman, 1937
Colleen McCullough, 1937
Pat Boone, 1934
Edward Woodward, 1930
James Hadley Billington, 1929
Bob Monkhouse, 1928
Andy Griffith, 1926
Marilyn Monroe, 1926
Nelson Riddle, 1921
Brigham Young, 1801
Jacques Marquette (Père Marquette), 1637
Debuting/Premiering Today:
FX(TV channel), 1994
Gremlins(Film), 1984
Cable News Network/CNN(TV network), 1980
"Live and Let Die"(Song release), 1973
"The Prisoner"(TV), 1968
"Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"(Album release), 1967
Today in History:
Hugh Capet is elected King of France, 987
Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing, 1215
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky, 1495
Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England, 1533
Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1660
The battle of the Glorious First of June is fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars, 1794
U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom, 1812
James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1813
James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole, 1831
American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua, 1855
Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico, 1868
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine, 1869
Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879
The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns, 1890
Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court, 1916
The First Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires, 1929
Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months, 1958
New Zealand's first official television broadcast commences at 7.30pm from Auckland, 1960
Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day), 1963
The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine, 1974
The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power, 1979
The Warsaw Pact officially dissolves, 1991
Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupts for the first time in 600 years, 1991
Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, Killing all 228 passengers and crew, 2009
General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009
Russia enacts a country-wide smoking ban, affecting most public places, 2013
Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed - world’s longest at 57km and most expensive tunnel costing €11bn, 2016
Prehistoric carvings of deer, between 4,000 and 5,000 years old, are found at Kilmartin Glen, Argyll, Scotland, 2021
US Coast Guard Admiral Linda Fagan assumes the post of Commandant, becoming the first female commander of US military branch, 2022